Summary

Chris Creed grew up as the class freak--the bullies' punching bag. After he vanished, the weirdness that had once surrounded him began spreading. It was as if a darkness reached out of his void to grab at the most normal, happy people--like some twisted joke or demented form of justice. It tore the town apart. Sixteen-year-old Torey Adams's search for answers opens his eyes to the lies, the pain, and the need to blame when tragedy strikes, and his once-safe world comes crashing down aroundhim.

Author Notes

Carol Plum-Ucci has been widely praised for capturing the heart and voice of teens while seamlessly combining reality with the supernatural. Her first novel, The Body of Christopher Creed , was a Michael L. Printz Award Honor Book, an ALA Best Book for Young Adults, and IRA-CBC Children's Choice, and a finalist for the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Young Adult Mystery. Her subsequent books have all earned much critical acclaim and many award citations.www.carolplumucci.com

Publisher's Weekly Review

First-novelist Plum-Ucci wraps a well-crafted mystery around a topical issue: the effect teenage intolerance can have on misfits. When class freak Chris Creed suddenly disappears, his fellow students are not so much worried but abuzz with speculation: Is he a runaway, a suicide, a crime victim? Through a complicated but believable turn of events, narrator Torey Adams, a popular 16-year-old, starts to feel some concern and resolves to find the truth. His unlikely allies are two kids of dubious social status: Ali, who is Chris's neighbor, and Ali's boyfriend, Bo, a "boon" (shorthand for boondocks) with a juvenile record. Convinced Chris's mother is to blame for Chris's disappearance, they plan to break into his house to steal his hidden diary in hopes of finding evidence. The plan backfires: Bo is caught, Torey is implicated and all three are the subject of malicious gossip that proves to have dangerous consequences. Told as a flashback, the novel drags slightly at the beginning. Plum-Ucci, however, picks up the pace and builds to a fever pitch near the conclusion, vividly describing Torey's late-night hunt for Chris's body in a nearby Indian burial ground. Readers will likely be enthralled by the mystery, and, even more, they will be moved by Torey's hard-won realization that everyone deserves compassion. Ages 12-up. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

School Library Journal Review

Gr 8 Up-Torey Adams, 16, is on the football team, is friends with all of the brightest and best in his class, and has a beautiful girlfriend. Suddenly, a class geek disappears, leaving a cryptic e-mail message for the principal that mentions Torey and some of his friends. As the novel progresses, the teen must face his fear that Chris is dead and is in the Indian burial ground behind his house. As he searches for his classmate, the town begins to suspect that he had something to do with Chris's possible murder. Although the boy is never found, dead or alive, Torey is changed forever. He begins to bond with some of the kids in town who have been labeled misfits and finds out that people are not always what they appear to be. A high school bully has a caring streak, the seemingly perfect Chief of Police has been cheating on his wife, and a childhood friend with a reputation for sleeping around turns out to be a trustworthy companion. Torey's narration takes place a year after Chris's disappearance, during which time he posted his version of the events on the Internet in hopes of finding the missing teen. The story offers mystery, a psychic, an Indian ghost, and an interesting perspective on how cruel people can be to one another. Plum-Ucci knows her audience and provides her readers with enough twists, turns, and suspense to keep them absorbed.-Kim Harris, Newman Riga Library, Churchville, NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

SD_ILS:1077945

9780152023881

Books

Select a list

Make this your default list.

The following items were successfully added.

There was an error while adding the following items. Please try again.